So much to love about this week of upcoming concerts in Los Angeles. But, then again, that’s true of any given week in one of the world’s greatest music capitals, which attracts thousands of top musicians to come live and hundreds of thousands more to pass through as performers.
While born-and-bred Angeleno musicians may take playing here for granted, countless others the world over dream of setting foot on an LA stage, which is reflected in just how many make the trek once they reach a certain level of ability or repute. Even just the small selection of shows previewed below includes talent from all over the U.S, including multiple local acts, plus Swedish, Mexican, British, and Belgian artists.
Read on for sound reasons why you, too, should head to Los Angeles.
Tanukichan - Troubadour (Oct. 28)
Former Trails and Ways guitarist/keyboardist Tanukichan has lately been lacing her distinctively gauzy shoegaze with more mainstream ‘90s influences. A longtime collaborator of Chaz Bear (aka Toro y Moi), she ladles on atmospherics and dreamy reflection, but in a refreshing departure from subgenre norms often keeps her vocals front and center rather than buried in reverb. On her first album, 2018’s Sundays, Tanukichan dropped the live band of her earlier EPs to make an intimately and intricately introspective record of washy synths, noisy guitars, and beatbox grooves, all juxtaposed against her limpid timbre. But on last year's follow-up, Gizmo, she also embraced her fondness for gritty throwback grunge, Sheryl Crow, and even decidedly unfashionable nu metal to create an album of even bolder but never forced textural contrasts, with distortion and dissonance framing thousand-yard-stare vocals and clean indie-rock guitars – and always in the service of melody. Tickets at See Tickets.
Cypress Hill: Haunted Hill - The Fonda (Oct. 29-30)
Stoners, rockers, and hip-hoppers alike will treasure this two-night Cypress Hill stand at The Fonda, as these local legends have stated that their upcoming 11th album will be their last (though not the end of the group). The first Latino rap superstars, their marriage of weed smoke and gun smoke, pot-induced paranoia and street-level menace brought a fresh angle to hip-hop with their eponymous 1991 debut album, which they refined over the following five hit full-lengths. The South Gate foursome remain among the most revered acts in hip-hop history, having brought a Latin American voice to the genre and helped its crossover into mainstream and rock audiences. While their relationship with rock has oscillated, Cypress Hill’s sound has always been rooted in the contrasting high-pitched, nasal rapping of B-Real and Sen Dog’s deeper, more aggressive style, made 420-friendly by DJ Muggs’ psychedelic production. They’ve additionally become increasingly important as hip-hop-with-substance holdouts against materialistic mumble rap. Tickets at AXS.
Opeth - YouTube Theater (Oct. 30)
Sometime around 2011’s Heritage album, Sweden’s Opeth went from wafts of your stoner uncle’s college prog project to actually sounding like them (assuming your uncle’s band were fantastic). While many death metal acts claim “pushing the boundaries,” Opeth weren’t kidding, and by the 2010s their death grunts had vanished in favor of creamy harmonies; pointy-guitar histrionics were offset with soothing strings; and, increasingly, they’ve embraced elements of jazz, blues, and Stonehenge-y folk. The gradual shift since their 1995 debut Orchid has mostly been helmed by vocalist/guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt, the band’s sole constant since joining in ‘92 (Opeth are one of those rare bands that features no original members). With five years since their almost universally acclaimed last album In Cauda Venenum, it's anyone’s guess what The Last Will and Testament, due in November, will sound like. But it’ll be characteristically single-minded, which remains one of Opeth’s many enduring charms. Tickets at Ticketmaster.
Willie Watson - Pico Union Project (Oct. 30)
A founding member of revered Americana string band Old Crow Medicine Show, Willie Watson has spent the past decade gently making a solo name for himself with two albums of traditional bluegrass and folk songs before his self-titled mostly original debut album (a third of which is covers) released in September. A musical old soul whose tattered tenor has helped place him among the best known interpreters of traditional material, Watson also fares well on his first venture into self-penned territory (mostly alongside Whispertown’s Morgan Nagler), in particular on lived-in ballads like “Already Gone” and “Real Love.” Today residing in LA’s San Fernando Valley, Watson has appeared at high-profile fests including the Newport Folk Festival and still sometimes performs with and/or opens for Old Crow Medicine Show. The wood-paneled stage of the 1909-built Pico Union Project, LA’s oldest synagogue building, will provide an appropriate setting for Watson’s weathered tones and throwback artistry. Tickets at Dice.
Girlschool - The Belasco (Oct. 30)
Girlschool were the female face of the early '80s new wave of British heavy metal which also spawned enduring mega-bands like Iron Maiden and Def Leppard. Championed by Motörhead and their manager (who also became theirs), the Brit foursome scored three UK top 30 albums, a Canadian gold disc, and in 1981 a hit collaborative EP with Lemmy & Co., St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Tough anthems like “Hit and Run” and “C’mon Let’s Go” plus their refusal to play up sexuality as a marketing tool (instead largely sharing the denim/leather/long hair aesthetic of their male peers) earned Girlschool much respect at a time when topless models filled whole pages of Britain’s tabloid newspapers and metal was almost exclusively a boy’s club. Still boasting singer/guitarist Kim McAuliffe and drummer Denise Dufort from their original 1978 lineup, the world’s first overtly metal all-girl band are billing this current trek as their final full U.S. tour. Tickets at Live Nation.
LCD Soundsystem - Shrine Expo Hall (Oct. 31, Nov. 1-3)
Brooklyn’s LCD Soundsystem were not only pioneers of infusing house grooves with irreverent punk spirit but have also proven to be one of dance-rock’s most enduring exponents. With vocalist/multi-instrumentalist James Murphy at the helm, their 2002 debut single, the hilarious, hipster-skewering “Losing My Edge,” immediately put the band and their DFA label on the map, while setting the tone for their overwhelmingly fun (and often funny) output ever since. Not that the sextet, which also features Hot Chip’s Al Doyle, isn’t capable of occasionally deeper emotional dimensions, as on tracks like 2007’s “New York I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down,” but it’s the taut, textured and artsy-adjacent charms of dance floor classics like “Drunk Girls” and “Daft Punk is Playing at My House” that have made LCD Soundsystem a live draw capable of headlining four nights at Shrine Expo Hall, despite a 2011 breakup and being only sporadically active since reemerging five years later. Tickets at AXS.
Qveen Herby - The Novo (Oct. 31)
Singular, stylish and deeply stylized, Qveen Herby is the alter ego of Amy Noonan, previously of pop-rap duo Karmin alongside her now hubby Nick Noonan. Since her 2017 solo debut, Qveen Herby has been praised for being an equally adept singer, co-writer and rapper, releasing a blizzard of EPs and singles before her first full album, A Woman, released in 2021. Free of Karmin’s major label constraints but still with her husband aboard as producer, the now staunchly indie Qveen Herby has earned a rep as a fierce, free-thinking hip-hop artist taking inspiration from the likes of Missy Elliot, Lauren Hill, and TLC’s Left Eye Lopes, but running with it to her own sonic conclusions. As a white girl from small-town Nebraska (and Berklee College of Music grad) melding hardcore rap-indebted rhymes to slinky crooning, Qveen Herby is a delightful outlier who has it all: tunes, attitude, talent, and an always arresting aesthetic. Tickets at AXS.
J Boog - The Novo (Nov. 1)
J Boog delivers the sort of slightly skewed reggae that made fellow Long Beach artists Sublime legends. Now based in Hawaii (and not to be confused with Compton rapper/R&B singer J-Boog), he laces his relentlessly melodic output with the hip-hop, rock, and R&B he grew up with, all capped with his heartfelt fine-grit vocal delivery and distinctive American-Samoan accent. It’s a recipe that has resonated from the get-go, with J Boog’s 2007 debut album, Hear Me Roar, making the Top Ten of the U.S. reggae album chart and its 2011 follow-up, Backyard Boogie debuting at number one. The latter album spawned singles that epitomize his sunny yet slightly careworn aura and remain high points of his live sets: “Let’s Do It Again,” “Sunshine Girl,” and “Let Me Know.” Boog’s third album repeated the feat of topping the reggae chart upon release, confirming that this subtly singular creator is here to stay. Tickets at AXS.
Aimee Mann - The United Theater on Broadway (Nov. 1)
Once described as “the model of an artist who has been chewed up and spit out by the music business,” bassist/singer/songwriter Aimee Mann’s story does indeed say much about the major label machine at the end of the 20th century. An early MTV-era poster girl whose new wave band ‘Til Tuesday scored a top ten hit with their 1985 debut single, “Voices Carry,” Mann subsequently signed a solo contract with Geffen Records, who were unimpressed with her low six-figure album sales. Always uncomfortable with pop star expectations, she’s been a fiercely independent career artist ever since. Once a regular at LA’s Largo club alongside her producer and former ‘Til Tuesday touring bandmate Jon Brion, Mann developed what’s been dubbed an “LA alternative” sound - a cultured, acoustic guitar-based Elton John and Beatles-inspired songwriting signature that’s seen her sought out for collabs by the esteemed likes of Elvis Costello, Squeeze, and Rush. Tickets at AXS.
Ana Bárbara - YouTube Theater (Nov. 1)
When the grupero subgenre seeped from rural Mexico into the country’s mainstream in the 1990s, former pageant queen Ana Bárbara was its preeminent solo exponent alongside bands like Los Temerarios, Grupo Bryndis, and Los Tigres del Norte. Like her stylistic peers, she embroidered ranchera roots with elements of norteño and Latin pop, making full use of rapidly evolving synthesizer and electronic drum technology while retaining more traditional and organic accordion, guitars, and horns. Over thirty years and eleven albums she became a star first in Mexico and then across the Americas, with her 1996 sophomore album La Trampa and its follow-up Ay, Amor in particular spawning strings of hit singles and prestigious awards. She experienced a career resurgence in the mid aughts before relocating from Mexico to LA and a 9-year gap before 2023’s exquisite, GRAMMY-nominated comeback album Bordado A Mano. Tickets at Ticketmaster.
Substance 2024 - The Belasco (Nov. 2)
Self-described as “LA’s only independent dark festival,” Substance is a nuanced intersection of dark rock, industrial, electronica, post-punk and darkwave genres, and a very visible testimony to the considerable musical and audience overlap between them. This year’s Substance has expanded to five nights across three cities. After double headers in San Antonio and San Francisco, Substance hits Downtown LA for one night only at The Belasco. It's a packed bill to squeeze into a single evening, featuring Wesley Eisold solo darkwave expression Cold Cave, long running Brooklyn cold wave project Black Marble, Belgian post-punk/EBM mashup Ultra Sunn, dark-pop man of mystery Kontravoid, somberly atmospheric Detroit threesome Ritual Howls, and Kennedy Ashlyn dream pop alter ego SRSQ, plus Madeline Goldstein, Sacred Skin, Kris Baha, Dancing Plague, LLORA, XTR Human, Auragraph, Sleek Teeth, More Ephemerol and many more, including suitably dusky DJ sets. Tickets at Live Nation.
Lita Ford - Whisky A Go Go (Nov. 2)
Former Runaway and undisputed queen of big-haired 1980s metal, Lita Ford had the songs and fluid-fingered guitar chops to back up her glam image and silence most critics in what was then an overwhelmingly male-dominated genre (and industry). In her mid 60s, she remains incredibly convincing as an icon and guitar hero - delivering, alongside her similarly adept band, thoroughly entertaining and good-natured live sets. While her biggest-selling records – 1988’s Platinum-certified eponymous third album and its hit singles “Kiss Me Deadly” and Ozzy Osbourne duet “Close My Eyes Forever” – are nearly 40 years in the rearview, Ford’s very visible love of rock n’ roll and playing guitar is barely diminished and only enhanced by a chemistry with her longtime bandmates that’s rare among solo acts. While Ford certainly qualifies as a legacy act, having not released a new studio album since 2016, her live sets evade any musty aura with timeless passion and talent that transcend nostalgia. Tickets at AXS.